Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

People enter via a separate entrance and have their independence, but they are next door to their sons or daughters. This type of security is the beauty of the granny flat. From my reading of the legislation, granny flats are subject to the €200 fee. The Minister's interpretation of the matter we are discussing might relate to a number of additional rooms in a house to give a mother or father a quarter of the house. Obviously, such an arrangement would not be subject to the levy.

My amendment No. 6a deals with this issue effectively, but not with all of the other issues. It is not just a question of parents but about sons and daughters. There are many anomalies because nothing is black and white when it comes to housing, leaving houses to sons, daughters, brothers or sisters and different people residing in houses. The problem with the legislation is that we needed to define "ownership" as belonging to the owners of the house, which was the only possible definition. However, it means that we must deal with many anomalies, some of which we have not identified. I gave an example, but I could name people from my home town of Gweedore who leave home every Monday morning and return Saturday while renting houses in Dublin. Their homes will be subject to the levy because their houses-----